Ursula Rucker has enjoyed something of a slow burning career since first making her recorded debut six years ago. Part of the inner circle of acclaimed Philadelphia post-hip hop deliverers The Roots; she has closed their last three albums in addition to adding her softly spoken words to material from artists as diverse as 4 Hero, King Britt and the Silent Poets. Now it is the turn of the Philadelphia child herself, with her debut solo longplayer Supa Sista due in September on Stud!o K7 – musical home to the likes of A Guy Called Gerald, Mathew Herbert and Ian Simmonds.
Kingsley Marshall caught up with Ursula on her London stopover as she travelled from Philly to Switzerland for the Montreaux Jazz Festival to find out just what makes a super sister.
“Me.” Ursula states bluntly, pausing before giving way to a laugh. “I think it takes a super sister to be as honest as I am and though the subject matter may be wide ranging on this album if there is one underlying theme it would be the truth.”
The truth indeed, though the borders between directly autobiographical lyrics and those passed on through stories are often obscured through deft flicks of perspective. “Generally if I’m telling someone else’s story I’ll talk in the third person,” she explains. “Sometimes though, I’ll be feeling something so deeply that I’ll take on that persona. I’m quite a traumatic person and empathy kind of rules my life – I’m still not quite sure whether that’s a thorn or a gift. When I was younger I would write in a journal, although it wasn’t until I went to college that my writing transformed into what I do now where I had personal and family things to address at the time and it was through writing that I chose to deal with those issues.”
Having recorded material with themes ranging from lost love right through to sexual abuse, is there any topics which she wouldn’t touch upon? “I do enjoy mixing it up. Whether that’s things people might call feminism, socio-politics or whatever – I just throw it all in there, make a gumbo and see what happens. The most personal track I have ever recorded was ‘Return To Innocence Lost’ for the last Roots album, where I was so unsure whether or not I had done the right thing, it even crossed my mind that I should change it and do something else. Though I do try to think about my family and how they would feel, the initial point of much of my poetry is to get my feelings out and although it can be a little scary you have to step out on faith and go with it.”
Continuing she adds, “Although I might be saying something someone may consider hardcore, it is never gratuitous and there will always be a point behind the words. If I’m talking of the rape of enslaved women or the experience of black men in America – those are hardcore subjects but they are also real. I’d like to think of my poetry as time release capsules, like an allergy treatment that you’d take and which works itself up through the day.”
The album itself reads like a who’s who of respected producers; 4 Hero’s Dego Macfarlane and Marc Clair deal the goods on ‘What’ and ‘7,’ King Britt mans the desk for ‘Spring’ while Cali’s Jonah Sharp is called up for production duties on ‘One Million Ways.’ With her back catalogue also featuring an array of collaborators, she explains how this project differs from those in the past.
“Although the Roots never gave me the music, instead preferring to hear the poem and then do whatever comes from that, with the material that I’ve written for 4 Hero, King Britt, Josh Wink and the Silent Poets they have all given me the tracks to that to. With this project it was a great joy to be able to direct things. Since I started recording I’ve wished that I could, not dictate as that sounds a little too harsh, ” there is a pause as she searches for a more suitable verb, “I guess orchestrate would be the best description. What the vibe of the track would be and how the arrangement affects the flow – just to have a little say in that side of things was the best!”
Perhaps surprisingly considering the amount of people involved and the sonic ground covered, Supa Sista makes for a fluid listen with Rucker’s voice the single constant. “I like so many different forms of music that I wanted to utilise them all and have always felt that, in order to take my poetry wherever it could go, I wanted to marry my art with as many suitors as possible.”
“Sometimes I look at what I’m doing and think – is this my life? Are people really paying attention and listening to the words that I’m creating? It seems very strange. I’ve gotten a few people’s feedback – where someone will have told me that they can really relate to something that I’ve said or that I’ve touched their lives in some way and that is the greatest reward for me. The fact that I can reach other folk and affect them motivates me, not specifically in writing poetry, which I think I will always do, but to be so bold as to take that poetry to a public form.”
“Of course I can’t say whether or not this is an accessible album and I have few expectations as to how well it will do commercially. I’ll just continue to do what I do in terms of performing and doing interviews and such in support of the project. I just hope and pray that people listen to the album, that they get it,” she pauses for a second before laughing, “and perhaps tell a friend.”
Kingsley Marshall is an academic and journalist who lectures in film and contributes music and film criticism, features and reviews to Little White Lies, Shook and Big Screen magazines in the UK. He was appointed Technical Editor at Clash magazine in 2010, where he writes a technology and games column.